"The universities will be given autonomy in the areas of institutional governance, finance and wealth generation, human resource and academic management, as well as student intake," Higher Education Minister Datuk Seri Mohamed Khaled Nordin said during his New Year's address at the Putrajaya International Convention Centre here on Thursday.

Earlier this month, Mohamed Khaled had announced that Universiti Teknologi Malaysia had been autonomy.

"The autonomy was given with the aim that there would be no more excuses for the universities not to excel. And to excel, they must have autonomy and not be tied down by government rules and processes," he said.

Although student intake would still be managed by the Universities Admissions Unit, the five institutions have been given the power to review criteria, and to select and announce results based on students' first preference.

Mohamed Khaled said the ministry would continue to fine tune the implementation of the powers to prevent overlap, particularly in the process of student selection.